Rainy Days

Someone pointed out correctly, that whenever our group goes out to shoot on a location, it pours down with rain. We aren’t shooting on a location today, yet it rains just like on that day when we visited Aylesford. Being brave as Braveheart (at least) me and Vova wonderded around the village, trying to ignore the streams of water falling down from the heavy clouds above our heads. At some point we found ourselves walking down a curvy and very narrow road (now bring to mind the narrow lanes of rural England, overgrown by various grasses and hedges, not wide enough for a single car, dangerous for two cars going in opposite directions, not to mention two walking individuals- and it was raining heavily!!!). Yes.
So here we are, putting our lives at a slight risk in search of a tree, a view, an object, this eye-grabbing ’something’ that we cannot even verbally describe.
‘Look’ said Vova ‘a horse!’
And indeed, there as a horse. The horse was standing on a large, flat piece of land, a dull- looking field, surrounded by a low barb-wire fence. As you can imagine, we had to fight our way through quite a bush just in order to reach the fence. Once we did this, the horse (as they do) showed a bit of an interest in us, his visitors. He took a few steps towards us, but we weren’t interesting enough and he soon went back to his previous agenda of standing, staring in the distance and looking sad (or maybe just thoughtful). He was of a beautiful color, something between brown and orange (I’m sure there is a word for it, but I don’t know it) and wore a dark blue horse- type coat. (Once again, I am sure there is a word for a horse- type coats but, hey, I’m sure you know what I mean).
Personally, I am not a great fan of horses. They’re smelly, unpredictable, unapproachable (apparently, from the back) and purportedly you can’t drive them (ride them?) as fast as they show in films. But two things I can’t ignore in them and about them is their unquestionable beauty and gentleness. I am not a great fan of horses, but I like them a lot, so I took a few pictures…

:)

this was probably about 2 years ago, at v&a.
in the picture: my dear friend Natalie.

there are tears in my ears

i fancy some tea

make it green, please.

i do feel a bit crap

.help me find the balance

“Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.(v5)
Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.(v20)”

God is good.

UNI
For a warm-up round, we were given 3 quick projects: The Internal Landscape (photographically communicating a narrative/ studio set-up), The First Sight (documentary relating to the ‘new chapter of our lives’), The Brief Encounters (street photography/ creating a typological portrait).

If I was given more time, none of these projects would look as they do in their final state. Nevertheless, I think I can say I am quite happy with the results. For the amount of time, its not bad.
Quickly about all 3 projects.
.internal landscape Based on Ephesians5:13-14. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. The light filling the vessel (bottle) makes its impurities visible, brings them up/ the closer to God you are, the more you realize how much you need Him. I confused this clear idea slightly using wrong colours and an unnecessary element in my final image, blaaah. Anyways, I think I will go back to that theme one day.
.the first sight Key words: documentary, subjective, not-detached, story-telling, words, text, commenting, metaphorical, sarcastic, double meanings. Using an old good-night poem (Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite…) I am making a comment/ I point towards the issue of homelessness and violence in this area. Yep yep.
.brief encounters For this I worked with Trev. His idea was to photographs interesting characters which was fair enough, I wanted to take photos of people eating in caffes. We sort of went with both ideas at once, got some nice images but I wouldn’t say they work great together. Still, great experience. We shot on Mamiya (6×7).

I wanted to scan the negatives but it just didn’t happen, no time! But no complaining either. It’s just a busy season of life.